The Flower in Hell (Jiokhwa )

If we think that genre hybridity is a feature of modern South Korean cinema, A Flower in Hell will correct that notion. The love triangle between prostitute Sonya and two brothers tears apart family relations and strips the younger one of the last shreds of innocence and naivety. Sonya is possibly the most prominent femme fatale in the history of Korean cinema – ambiguous, seductive and destructive. Director Shin Sang-ok, one of the most successful creators of the 1960s, paints an unsettling picture of people at the edge of society, lost in the ruins of the world. The backdrop of an abandoned American base functions as a metaphor of the moral and physical aridity. The film combines a melodramatic plot with realistic, documentary-like cinematography, draws on the poetics of Italian neorealism and peaks in a spectacular finale. A Flower in Hell is a proof that even in the mid-20th century, Korean cinema could be formally adventurous as well as emotionally devastating. (Dan Krátký)